Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 2

On arriving at Old Point, I met a dispatch from General Halleck, inviting me to his house in Richmond. I declined most positively, and assigned as a reason the insult to me in his telegram to Secretary Stanton of April 26th. I came here via Petersburg, and have gone under canvas. Halleck had arranged to review my army in passing through Richmond. I forbade it. Yesterday I received a letter, of which a copy is enclosed. I answered that I could not reconcile its friendly substance with the public insult contained in his dispatch, and notified him that I should march through Richmond, and asked him to keep out of sight, lest he should be insulted by the men. My officers and men feel his insult as keenly as I do. I was in hopes to have something from you before I got here to guide me, and telegraphed you with that view from Morehead city, but I have not received a word from you, and have acted thus far on my own responsibility. I will treat Mr. Stanton with like scorn and contempt unless you have reasons otherwise; for I regard my military career as ended, save and except so far as necessary to put my army into your hands. Mr. Stanton can give me no orders of himself. He may, in the name of the President, and those shall be obeyed to the letter, but I deny his right to command an army. Your orders and wishes shall be to me the law, but I ask you to vindicate my name from the insult conveyed in Mr. Stanton's dispatch to General Dix of April 27th, published in all the newspapers of the land. If you do not, I will. No man shall insult me with impunity as long as I am an officer of the army. Subordination to authority is one thing —submission to insult is another. No amount of retraction or pusillanimous excusing will do. Mr. Stanton must publicly confess himself a common libeller, or—But I won't threaten. I will not enter Washington except on your or the President's emphatic orders; but I do wish to remain with my army till it ceases to exist, or till it is broken up and scattered to other duty. Then I wish to go for a time to my family, and make arrangements for the future. Your private and official wishes, when conveyed to me, shall be sacred, but there can be no relations between Mr. Stanton and me. He seeks your life and reputation as well as mine. Beware! But you are cool, and have been most skilful in managing such kind of people, and I have faith that you will have penetrated his designs. He wants the vast patronage of the military governorships of the South, and the votes of the negroes, now loyal citizens, for political capital, and whoever stands in his way must die. Keep above such influences, or you